Heart Broken

It was an awkward moment if ever there was one. Priya was most reluctant to go to the party. Punam had insisted that she come. 

“Please, please, please, you just have to come,” she begged. ” I will be in town for just those two days and I want to meet all my friends. I know it will be awkward for you but I can’t meet you alone.”

It was a typical story  : Punam, Priya, Vivek and Ramesh had all been friends in college. For four years they were inseparable and were known as  ‘The Gang of Four’. They first met on the first day of college, each one scared and apprehensive. Medicine was a tough course and on their very first day they were made to spend four hours in the anatomy lab. It was strange – forty kids ( for that was what they were at 18) with twenty headless corpses. The first time the class entered the room, the bodies were covered but the strong smell of formalin was an indication of what might unravel in the first five minutes of class.

” Welcome to the real world, Class of 2004,” boomed the voice of Mr. Karegaonkar the Professor of Anatomy. ” Meet your best friend for the rest of the year.” The class which was divided into pairs, automatically looked at one another and were shocked when the professor yanked off the cloth on the first table to reveal a headless body! 

There was an audible gasp as the boy closest to the table actually fainted. Three more screamed in fright while one boy actually threw up. It was only the four of them who remained unflinching and unaffected by this dramatic turn of events. ” So, you are the tough guys uh?” asked Karegaonkar, ” The Gang of Four, I see. Congratulations! You four have passed the first test. I wish you luck for the years ahead!”

And that is how Punam, Priya, Vivek and Ramesh were christened the Gang of Four. And that is how they remained . Every morning they would co-ordinate their train journey so that they were all on the same train and in the same compartment, the girls preferring to travel in General just to be with the boys. They spent most of the time quizzing one another, sharing stories of patients seen and generally having a good time. And as expected, they also paired up : Punam and Vivek and Priya and Ramesh. Medical college romances are legend and many a doctor has met his/her spouse during some medical course – either during the under graduate or post graduate level. So it came as a real shock when Punam and Vivek went their separate ways after graduation. There was a lot of speculation about what caused the break up but no one dared ask either of them. Punam was famous for her cold, frosty looks while Vivek just laughed it off being too much of a gentleman to talk about his ex.

Priya and Ramesh remained a couple and actually went to the US after their MLE’s and landed up cementing their relationship in a small wedding attended only by their families. They had of course invited both Vivek and Punam but neither of them could make it caught up as they were with their post graduate studies.

 Priya and Ramesh had had a tough time in the US and quite contrary to what they expected, found it difficult to make the trip back to India . Of course their families visited them in the US as did so many friends so the need to come back was even less. But now, after ten years, they finally found the time and the money to make a home visit. Besides, they also wanted their four  year old son to see the land of his parents’ birth.

Punam was keen on seeing Jason, Priya’s little son. He looked so cute in the hundreds of photos Priya had put up of him on Facebook. She had last seen him when he was just one, when Punam had gone specially to Minneapolis for his birthday.There was a special conference she was attending and she spent four nights with her dear friends rather than stay in the hotel. 

“What the hell, ” she thought, ” I can’t act like such a baby! This was bound to happen sometime. I have avoided him for ten years now………I can’t really avoid him forever can I?” she reasoned with herself, building up Dutch courage.

She took special care that evening , actually going to the parlour to get her hair done. She had spent 24 hours on call and was looking quite a wreck. She did her nails, pulled out her best sari, sprayed half a bottle of ‘Chanel No.5’. “Bring out the mattresses, Vivek Kapoor, ” she said as she eyed herself for that one last glance in the mirror. 

For the last forty yards to Priya’s house, Punam could actually hear her heart beat faster. Priya began to take deep breaths like she used to advise her patients before any procedure. ” Calm yourself, breathe in, breathe out, slow and gentle,” while her tachycardia seemed to increase with a mind of its own.

Slowly she stepped inside the room, torn between the desire to run away and hug her friend. “Stop behaving like a moron, ” she told herself . 

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii,” squealed Priya in warm welcome and embraced her friend in a warm rib crushing bear hug. ” I’m so, so glad you’ve come! See, beta, meet your Auntie Punam my very bestest friend,” she said introducing Jason to her. 

” Hi, ” said Jason with a shy smile, ” you smell nice.” 

“So buddy, you made it hunh?” asked Ramesh giving Punam an equally warm hug. ” I’m really happy you made it.” Within seconds the three of them were back as they always were, seamlessly falling back into the old pattern as if there never was a gap. Two drinks later, Punam was giggling like a school girl. Ramesh and Priya had tonnes of stories to share as did Punam. There were lots of other people too, almost like a college reunion she thought looking at all the other doctors in the room. Everyone was talking all at once trying to cram in the past ten years in one day. Some of the students had not met for years and there was a lot of catching up to do. Someone pulled aside the sofas making room for an impromptu dance floor which came alive with gyrating bodies dancing to the loud pulsating music;  glasses clinked, toasts were raised, squeals of delight, guffaws of laughter – it was a happy noise that filled the air. Suddenly the room fell silent. It was as if some one had said “Statue” and frozen everyone into immobility. The hair on her arm stood up and Punam knew instinctively that Vivek had entered the room. All eyes slowly turned towards her. She was flushed with the exertion of dancing having been twirled round and round.

She looked up and laughed hysterically, her laughter breaking the silence.

“Good to see you my friend,” she said walking towards him holding out her hand. Before he could grasp it she fell in a heap. There was a rush as all the doctors went forward to see what had happened.

” Call the ambulance quick,” Priya said while someone already had punched the numbers. The men lifted Punam’s limp body to the sofa and tried to give her air. Her pulse was slowly falling and by the time the ambulance came she was pronounced dead.

Vivek cradled her head in his arms and broke down as he said ” Oh Punam why did you leave me so?” and shook his head.